When my 61 year old DH was made redundant about two months ago I warned him that November and January were long and dark and that it was difficlt to fill the time. Strangely, the November we have just enjoyed was full of beautiful clear days when we were able to have long riverside walks which made it whizz by agreeably.
However, January is here and, though the days have started to lengthen finally, it's a good old shlepp to March.
I have a regular schedule of time filling (wasting) activities. I clean the house, wash and iron and cook in the mornings, usually while listening to Radio Four and Radio Four Extra catch-up programmes. In the afternoon I take in a long walk of at least an hour and read. Since reading is my greatest pleasure I can stretch this out until the late afternoon. I have afternoon tea with cake, read again and then it is time to make dinner. The evening is spent partly on the sofa with the DH watching a selected programme on TV.
We have to keep our spending down which curtails our ability to travel or visit anywhere expensive. However, we are National Trust members and have some properties nearby which we can visit for free. We also live twenty minutes away from the Central Tube line and have found a free carpark so we sometimes have a cheapie day out in London.
Recently we had a walk through Hyde Park, an afternoon at the (free) Wallace Collection followed by free tea at the Oxford Street John Lewis (with vouchers) and then in the evening attended their 'Prosecco and mince pies' shoppers' evening event. The Tube cost us about £18 between us and we thought that wasn't too bad for a day out in London together. We have more of these planned.
Otherwise, roll on February and March.
